JEANNETTE STEWART-WOOD
It was a cold day in Sherbrooke, Quebec, when Jeannette Stewart-Wood took to the
water for the finals in the Women's trick event. She had already won the gold
medal in the Jumping event. When she returned to the dock she had run a solid
trick run in what was her weakest event and had garnered the points she needed to
become the 1967 World Overall Champion as well. If Jeannette was pleased with her
performance, as she certainly should have been, her coach and mentor, David
Nations, was delirious. It would be more than a quarter of a century before
another European woman would win the overall trophy at the World Championships.
This was the culmination of a water skiing career in which Jeannette dominated the
Women's division in Europe for much of the 1960s and finally in 1967 took that
supremacy to the World level. Between 1964 and 1968, Jeannette was European Slalom
champion three times and Jump champion four times. She also set a new European
Jump record in 1966 of 31.54 meters.
Jeannette was a member of the British Water Ski Team for three World Championships
from 1963 to 1967 and, in addition to her 1967 medals, won a silver medal in
Jumping in 1965.
It is my pleasure to announce the induction into the International Water Ski Hall
of Fame of one of Europe's strongest women skiers, Jeannette Stewart-Wood.